Week 7: Church Conflict Story>>>Trenton Prieshoff

Interviewing Pastor Ryan McCarty
February 22, 2008

Nearly all conflict comes from someone feeling offended, according to Pastor. Typically, when the conflict actually comes up, it is because of ten or twelve offenses. In this particular instance, which it hurt him to relate because it did not end well, a woman was leading a dance ministry for the young girls of the church. She complained to Pastor that it was foolish that the church send as much money as it does to its sister church in Zambia when the girls in their own church cannot participate in the dance ministry because they cannot afford outfits. Her reasoning seemed to be that these inner city girls have a chance to do something that will get them off the street and will help them to express themselves to God in a unique way, but when they can't afford to buy costumes, they can't be a part of this.

Pastor said he and his wife, Katara, first reestablished in their minds what the mission of the church is and then met the woman together (because you don't meet with someone of the opposite sex alone). They thanked her for all the work she did with the dance ministry and made note of the positive effects of the ministry for those girls. They very clearly reaffirmed the mission of the church, that God's House Ministries is about using the money that comes in for the community and for the world, not to build itself up (I'm paraphrasing; he stated it better). They encouraged her to do a fundraiser specifically for the dance team. She did and the fundraiser was a great success and so was the dance ministry.

As Pastor said, though, conflict usually doesn't come up until there are ten or twelve "offenses." This particular woman, had many personal disagreements with Ryan and Katara and was not willing to submit to the kind of mission the church as a whole had determined to be about and left a few years later.